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The chronic infection hypothesis for novel severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) variant emergence is increasingly gaining credence following the appearance of Omicron. Here, we investigate intrahost evolution and genetic diversity of lineage B.1.517 during a SARS-CoV-2 chronic infection lasting for 471 days (and still ongoing) with consistently recovered infectious virus and high viral genome copies. During the infection, we find an accelerated virus evolutionary rate translating to 35 nucleotide substitutions per year, approximately 2-fold higher than the global SARS-CoV-2 evolutionary rate. This intrahost evolution results in the emergence and persistence of at least three genetically distinct genotypes, suggesting the establishment of spatially structured viral populations continually reseeding different genotypes into the nasopharynx. Finally, we track the temporal dynamics of genetic diversity to identify advantageous mutations and highlight hallmark changes for chronic infection. Our findings demonstrate that untreated chronic infections accelerate SARS-CoV-2 evolution, providing an opportunity for the emergence of genetically divergent variants.

The experience of anxiety is central to the development of chronic pain. Music listening has been previously shown to exert analgesic effects. Here we tested if an active engagement in music making is more beneficial than music listening in terms of anxiety and pain levels during physical activity that is often avoided in patients with chronic pain. We applied a music feedback paradigm that combines music making and sports exercise, and which has been previously shown to enhance mood. We explored this method as an intervention to potentially reduce anxiety in a group of patients with chronic pain (N = 24, 20 female and 4 men; age range 34–64, M = 51.67, SD = 6.84) and with various anxiety levels. All participants performed two conditions: one condition, Jymmin, where exercise equipment was modified with music feedback so that it could be played like musical instruments by groups of three. Second, a conventional workout condition where groups of three performed exercise on the same devices but where they listened to the same type of music passively. Participants' levels of anxiety, mood, pain and self-efficacy were assessed with standardized psychological questionnaires before the experiment and after each condition. Results demonstrate that exercise with musical feedback reduced anxiety values in patients with chronic pain significantly as compared to conventional workout with passive music listening. There were no significant overall changes in pain, but patients with greater anxiety levels compared to those with moderate anxiety levels were observed to potentially benefit more from the music feedback intervention in terms of alleviation of pain. Furthermore, it was observed that patients during Jymmin more strongly perceived motivation through others. The observed diminishing effects of Jymmin on anxiety have a high clinical relevance, and in a longer term the therapeutic application could help to break the Anxiety Loop of Pain, reducing chronic pain. The intervention method, however, also has immediate benefits to chronic pain rehabilitation, increasing the motivation to work out, and facilitating social bonding.

Optical engineering 61(09), 095103 (2022). doi:10.1117/1.OE.61.9.095103, Published by SPIE, Bellingham, Wash.

While previous research has conclusively established that children with higher cognitive ability and those originating from advantaged socioeconomic status (SES) backgrounds have better educational outcomes, the interplay between the influences of cognitive ability and social origin has been largely overlooked. The influence of cognitive ability might be weaker in high-SES families as a result of resource compensation, and stronger in high-SES families owing to resource multiplication. We investigate these mechanisms while taking into account the possibility that the association between cognitive ability and educational attainment might be partly spurious due to unobserved genetic and environmental influences. We do so by analysing a large sample of twins from the German TwinLife study (Npairs = 2,190). Our results show that the association between cognitive ability and educational attainment is to a large extent confounded by genetic and shared environmental factors. If this is not considered, and this is the case in most previous studies, high-SES parents seem to compensate for the lower cognitive ability of their children. However, when we consider the genetic and shared environmental confounding, the resource compensation effect becomes non-significant.